One-fan system for pneumatic dry-cleaning or separating mills



Sept. 8. 1925.

H. M. SUTTON ET AL ONE-FAN SYSTEM FOR PNEUMATIC DRY CLEANING 0R SEPARA'KING MILLS 2 Sheds-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 5, 1925 Sept. 8, .1925. 1,553,201 7 H. M. SUTTON ET AL Y CLEANING OR SEPARATING MILLS ONE-FAN SYSTEM FOR PNEUMATIC DR Filed Dec. 5. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 gwoemi'oz 1%. ,6. Am. (514. W

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attorney Patented Sept. 8, 1925.

I UNITED STATES- PATENT; OFFICE.

HENRY moons sn'rron, WALTER rvmesron srEELE', AND Enwm ooonwm s'rEELE,

" or DALLAS, TEXAS.

, ONE-FAN SYSTEM FOR PNEUMATIC DRY-CLEANING OB SEPAB IATING MILLS.

application filed December 8, 1928. Serial No. 678,842.

To all wlwm it may concern:

Be it known that HENRY M. SU'rroN, WALTER L. STEEI and EDWIN G. STEEL citizens of the United States, residing at Dallas, in the county of Dallas and State of Texas, have invented'certain new and useful Improvements in OnesFan Systems forBneumatic Dry-Cleaning or Separating of which the following is a' specification, reference being bad therein to, the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to improvements in a one-fan system for neumatic dry cleaning or ise arating mi ls and relates more particular to a one-fan system forprovid mg air t51 a plurality of pneumatic-separaters orcleaners.

'Heretofore it has beenthe custom to provide a separate fan for each separator or cleaner so that the air used on the articular separator may be closely re ated to suit the work being done. The amused on a se arator or cleaner must be closely regulat because that particular separator or cleaner may be used for material of diiferen't eharacters'or material of different weight and the amount of tonnage of the material which is being handled by the apparatus. j From this 1t will be seen that each separating or cleaning unit employed in a mill must be provided with a fan for its air supply. If all of the separators or cleaners of a mill installation were connected direct to one fan of'a sufiicient capacity to suppl the needs of all of'the units and if each of these units were regulated to receive its proper air supply it will be seen that any change in the regulation of air supplied to any one articular unit would mmediately distur and change the regulation of air supplied to the other units. A one-fan system of this character would consequently be inoperative when frequent regulation of the .air supplied to the several units is necessar 'l b state this in another manner let us assume that we have a battery of two or more se aratinilor cleaningiglnits in operation of if? "ch would operating on difierent iiie of mat ial and handling a different amount of tonnage. For the.

P per b .eijt t on Oi, these SQt imits the air supf ied' to each sep rater or "cleaner would necessarily dril'ereiit. i 0116 Ilhit inight lfqui fi y hl ,,QQQ-to 5,000

cubic feet of air per minute while another of the units might require only from 200 to 500 cubic feet of a1r per minute while the intervening or remaining units would.

require air in different amounts in accordance with the size of material and tonnage being handled. It will of course be readily understood that the exact amount of air needed for each unit can be readily regulated by air gates or valves between the unit and the source of air supply but once having secured the close regulation of air needed for each unit any change in this balanced condition by changing the air regulation on any one unit would destroy the air regulation of the other units and thereby upset and spoil the balance of the entire system.

.Our invention is designed and built to overcome the difiiculties and weaknesses of a one-fan system as described above and our system is so arranged that the air needed for each of the separating or cleaning units is supplied by one fan and the air to each of the units may be regulated when and as desired without disturbing 'the balance of'the system or disturbing the regulation of the air supplied to any of the other units of the battery of separators or cleaners.

The object of our invention is to provide a one-fan system for a battery or plurality of neu'matrc. separators or cleaners.

other object of our invention is to provide a one-fan system for a battery or pluralit of pneumatic separators or cleaners in w ich thefan provi es an air capacity in excess of the total air required.

Another and further object of our invention isto provide a one-fan system for a battery or plurality of neuniatic separators or cleaners in which t ere is 'rovided an excess capacity of air over t "e total air requirements and means for regulating the air supplied for each of the separatdi's or cleaners. Another and further object of our in-' vention is to provide a system of the character described in which there is an autoinatic r lease from the system or. air in excess' 02f the ai requirements of the several separators or cleaners. U

A further object of our invention is to provide a system f the ch racte des i which 'ischefl and simple or manuf cture and highly e cient'in; operation.

Other further objects, and improved results, and novel features of construction of our system will appear in the following description and accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspeetive view of a four unit system.

Figure 2 is a plan view of our system for two batteries of separators or cleaners; each battery composed of four units.

Figure 3 is a plan view of our automatic relief valve. s

Figure 4 is a horizontal section of our automatic relief valve.

Referring now to the drawings:

10 indicates a fan which may be of any type desired and may be driven in any manner convenient. The fan 10 is provided with an air inlet pipe 11 and discharges into the air conduit 12 from which lead 0d the several supplemental air conduits 13 which provide air to the several separators or cleaners, (not shown), located preferably above the main conduit.

We have located in each of the supplemental conduits 13- a re lating gate or valve 14 for controllin t 9 air supplyto each of the units. T e position of this valve or regulating gate is not material in so long as it is at some point between the main air conduit and the separator or cleaner to which the air is supplied.

Located at the end of the main air conduit 12 is our automatic release valve which comprises anopen ended housing 15 in which are mounted upon the vertical shafts 16 and 17 the two gate valves 18 and 19. The u per ends of the shafts 16 and 17 extend t rough th top ofthe housin 15 as clearly appears in t .e drawings an carry 11 on their endsthe segments 20 and 21 which are fastened as at 22 and 23 to the ends of the straps or chains 24 and 25. These chains 24 and 25 are carried around the pulleys 26 and forward towards the pulley 27 At a point 28 the chains meet and merge into a single chain 29 which passes around the pulley 27 before mentioned to the pulley 30 mounted upon the side of the housing 15. "Upon the end of the chain 29 is fastened a weight 31.

To make our system 0 erative the main conduit 12 must be of en cient size to provide capacity for the desired number of outlets to the several separator or cleaner conduits. The fan must be of a size to provide an amount of air in excess of the maximum air capacity of the several separating or cleaning units of the battery.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the operation of th system is as follows:

The fan is driven and supplies to the conduit 12 air in excess of the amount needed for the several se arator or clean ing units. Air to each-or the units is adjusted through the medium of the valves or regulating gates 14 to provide to the unit a volume of air needed for its work, the total volume of air consumption of the entirebattery of units being less than the volume of air supplied by the fan. The excess air volume over that being used by the several units opens the gates 18 and 19 of the automatic exhaust or relief valve and passes to the atmosphere or to waste. Should any adjustment of any air volume to any particular unit be desired this is accomplished by means of the regulating gate 1 1 of the unit. Should the adjustment be to provide more air to the unit this additional volume is drawn from the excess in the main conduit 12 but should this adjustment be to reduce the volume to the unit this would throw back into the main conduit 12 an additional excess which would cause the gates 18 and 19 of the automatic relief valve to open further and thus pass more air to waste. It will be seen then that the greater the volume of air used the nearer the exhaust valve gates are closed and that the gates of the automatic valve open as the volume of air consumed by the several units is reduced.

The weight 17 is of such a size as to position the" exhaust valve gates to maintain within the main conduit 12 the maximum pressure or air volume available from the fan. As the maximum air capacity of the fan is greater than the capacity of all the units it will be seen that the gates must always be open to allow escapement of air to waste.

To prevent a useless escape of air to waste, the total capacity of air volume of the units and the total capacity of air volume of the fan should be made very close. This can he done without afiectin the eficiency of the system because occasions would be very few when all of the units would be set at the same time so as to utilize their full alr capacity.

From the foregoing it will be seen that we have provided a highly edicient one-fan systerm for providing air to a battery of pneumatic se arators or cleaners.

The rawings set forth one manner of building and utilizing our system but we do not imit ourselves to the particular construction shown in the drawings. The particular construction of the automatic relief valve could he changed in many ways with put departing from the spirit of our invenion.

To make our system a success it is only necessary that there be provided three features, namely:

1, the use of a fan with capacity in excess of the total air requirements; 2, air regulating means at each of the separating or cleaning units; 3 the automatic release ill) from the system of air in excess of the amount used by the separating orcleaning units. So long as these three features are incorporated in a system it is immaterial What manner or form they take. 4

. It is our desire and intention to protect the above enumerated three features which makeup a successful one-fan system for a plurality of separating orcleaning units.

Having thus described our invention what we desire to protect and secure by Letters Patent is: p I

1 A one fan system for a plurality of pneumatic separators or the like, comprising a fan with an air capacity in excess of the total air requirements, an airconduit, and automatic means for releasing from the system air in excess of the amount of air a used by the separators.

2. A one fan system for a plurality of pneumatic se arators or the like, comprising a fan wit an air capacity in excess of the total air requirements, an air conduit, means for regulating the air supply to each of the separators or units, and automatic means for releasing from the system air in excess of the amount of airused by all of the se arators or units.

3. A one fan system for a plurality of pneumatic se arators or the like, comprismg a fan wit an air capacity in excess of the total air requirements, a main'air conduit, supplemental air conduits for each se arator or unit, means for regulating the air supply to. each of the separators or units,

and automatic means for releasing from the system air in excess of the amount consumed by all the separators or units.

4. A one fan system for a plurality of pneumatic separators or the like, comprising a fan with an air capacity in excess of the total air requirements, an air conduit, means for regulating the air supply to the separators or units, automatic means for releasing from the system air in excess of the amount used by all of the separators or units said automatic means comprising a relief valve com osed of a pivotally mounted door normally held against the air esca e.

A one fan system for a plurality of pneumaticseplarators or cleaners, comprismg a fan wit an air capacity in excess of "the total air reqluirements, an air conduit,

means for regu ating the air supply to each of the separators or units, automatic means in communication with the air conduit for releasing from the stem air in excess of the amount used by a l of the separators or units said release valve comri ing a pivotall ek l against the air escape by means of a weight. w

6. A one fan system for a 1plurality of pneumatic separators or the li e, comprisy mounted door normally ing a fan with an air capacity in excess of the total air requirements, a main air conduit, supplemental air conduits for each se arator or unit, means'for regulating the air supply of the supplemental conduits to each separator or unit, automatic means for releasing from the system air in excess of the amount used by all of'the separators or units, said automatic means comprising a valve weighted to normally retard the air escape through the valve. v

7. A one fan system for a plurality of pneumatic se arators or the like, comprismga fan wit an air capacity in excess of the total air requirements, means for regulating the air supply'to each separator or unit, automatic 'means for releasing from the system air in excess of the amount used by the separators or units, said automatic means adapted to allow an air escape at all times and automatically adjustable to increase or decrease said air escape in proportion to the air consumption of the separators.

8. A one fan system for a lurality of pneumatic separators or the li e, comprising afan withan air capacity in excess of the total air requirements, a main air conduit, supplemental air conduits for each separator or unit, means for regulating the air supply to each of the separators or units, automatic means for releasing from the sys tem air in excess of the amount used by the separators. or units, said automatic means operating to always allow anair escape ment in the system and to regulate such air escapement in proportion to the air consumption of the separator.

9. A fan system for pneumatic se arators comprising a, conduit having out ets tobe connected with the separators, a fan having its outlet connected with the conduit, the fan having a capacity in excess of the total re uirements of the separators, the conduit aving a regulator controlled by the air of the fan, whereby the pressure is kept uniform in the conduit.

10. A fan system for pneumatic se av rators com rising a conduit having out ets adapted to be connected with the separators, a fan having its outlet connected with said conduit and its inlet disconnected from the conduit, the conduit having pressure regulating means operated by the air pressure of the fan' whereby a uniform pressure is maintained in the conduit.

11. A fan system for a plurality of pneumatic separators comprising a conduit hav ing openings to be connected with the separators, manually operated valves inthe said openin a fan having its outlet connected' with t c said conduit, the conduit having pressure means operated by the air from the fan to maintain a uniform pressure within the conduit irrespective'of the adjustment of the said manually operatmi ings to be connected with the separators,

valves.- the ian having its outlet connected with the 12. A fan system for pneumatic sepasaid conduit, of a regulating valve for the w rators comprising aconduit having open-= pressure comprising two gates cause& to

v 5 ings to be connected with the separators, a swing by the air pressure in the direction fan having its outlet connected with the thereof. conduit, said conduit having means oper- In testimony whereof we hereunto affix ated by theair from the fan comprising at our signatures. gate adaptefl. to swing in the direction of 1 air pressure. 7 f HENRY MOORE SUTTON.

13. A fan system for pneumatic sepa-=' WALTER LIVINGSTON STEELE raters comprising a conduit having open= EDWIN GOODWIN STEELE. 

